January 8,2019
Toronto--The Canadian President of the largest transit union in the country is echoing the call for bus shields coming out of Thunder Bay, Ontario where a bus operator was brutally assaulted on Boxing Day during a fare dispute.
“There are about 2000 transit operator assaults each year in this country,” said ATU Canada President John Di Nino. “What happened to this bus driver is not an isolated incident, but is a vicious pattern that is all too familiar to those in the public transit industry. What we need is all levels of government to come together and pass a comprehensive law similar to the Transit Worker and Pedestrian Protection Act in the United States.”
Di Nino is referencing H.R. 1139 – Transit Worker and Pedestrian Protection Act that is currently being studied in the House of Representatives in the United States. This bill is being driven by political action from the Amalgamated Transit Union.
“Our Protection Act calls for the federal government to mandate that transit authorities create a risk reduction program in conjunction with the workforce and identify what are the threats on the system, whether its sexual assaults on passengers, bus blind spots, ergonomic issues in the operator compartment or assaults on bus operators. The second piece is a national database to report on these issue and benchmark the systems against one another for accountability and transparency for the riding public and the workers in these transit systems,” said John Di Nino.
Operator assaults in Thunder Bay are a frequent occurrence. An operator was assaulted after they intervened in a passenger dispute on September 14, 2017. On October 10, 2018, an operator was assaulted over a fare dispute. In January 2019, an operator was assaulted on a city street while in uniform.
“Public transit should be a safe space for everyone. It can be this way. If we mobilized all levels of government to do there part we could have safe, reliable, affordable transit tomorrow. It should start with transit authority speaking with operators and riders about risks associated with the equipment, the environment and the communities. Those risks should then be subjected to a risk mitigation plan. That mitigation plan should be send to a national database where risk reduction is monitored and assisted. It is all spelled out in our Transit Worker and Pedestrian Protection Act currently making its way through the U.S. Congress.”
In addition to operator assaults, issues such as sexual violence against passengers, blind spots, air quality and ergonomics should be dealt with. The ATU says that the possibilities of physical harm should be identified and removed as fast as humanly possible.